Balenciaga at the DeYoung

My computer died a sad early death, dammit HP. Thus why no recent posting. Hopefully I am up and running soon enough, this post is being brought to you via my IPAD which while fun - hello Garage Band and portable magazines - is still pretty much a toy computer.

Read here for a q&a with the fabulous Mr. Hamish Bowles who is curating the hotly anticipated Balenciaga and Spain exhibit at the DeYoung. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/20/LVRN1I7Q6J.DTL&type=living

I could't be more excited about this, especially as it coincides with my upcoming birthday. What a nice gift. I promise to smear my camera in and take some pictures to share.

BTW some exciting things happening I hope to share soon.....

French Vogue - February 2011

I spent my afternoon sipping tea in a cafe taking advantage of their free wi-fi to download Ipad apps and flipping through and photographing pictures from French Vogue. I am not paying 15.99. I am cheap like that.


Jewelry inspiration, love the color.

forget the bananas, the above Prada is what I want. Look at those shoes!

The image on the left reminds me of how I am tending to dress lately. Like a bohemian boy. I like it.

This image and the ones that follow are part of an epic editorial I cannot begin to describe. By epic I am referringto the true maning of the word. The editorial is literally 50 pages long and quite comprehensive and beautiful.

I am wanting these white onesie jumper things above. If I get one like them, i promise to wear at home only.

And finally, Man Candy. Colin Firth is certainly an attractive man. Thanks Mr. Darcy.

New York Trip - Part 1

These are my trusty combat boots. I wore them on my trip to New York last week and they sure came in handy. If I lived there, I would stay in them permanently in winter, no matter what else I was wearing. Snow, Ice, Water, Slush - no problem. We made tracks.


This is me on the first day of the ENK show. I wanted to model our jewelry and brought black dresses but decided that black would just be boring and any old jewelry can show up against a black background but with a wild print like this, if your pieces stand out then you have something there. The gamble paid off. The first day was a huge success. I felt like a popular girl at fashion camp. We had a crowd all day and I didn't have time to sit down at .

This dress is made in England from the 1970's. I am wearing it with a cashmere headpiece I made myself. Unfortunately I lost it on my last day, bummer. I am hoping to recreate it. It's really different and really cool. The belt is this great obi leather wrap belt I bought from the Gap about 12 years ago. It is my favorite belt out of my huge belt collection.

You can't see the jewelry well in this picture. I will post some pictures of it soon. It is really beautiful and I am so proud of being a part of creating it.




This is me on the second day. I think the sour look is because i was up at 7 am New York time.
4 am at home. It was rough but I trooped through. This is one of my favorite dresses I own. It's a 1960's mini dress with sheer silk sleeves. An incredibly mod piece. I am wearing the locket that was shown in this month's issue of Vogue. It is pretty exciting. I helped with the color choices for that collection and Swarovski and Vogue picked the piece along with a matching cuff, for an advertorial right in the middle of the magazine, page 47. We got really lucky. Free advertising is always nice.


I was so tired by day three , okay actually hungover from partying the night before, i didn't bother photographing my outfit that day. I wore a woven black raffia dress from the 1950's with a bow front. A really classic style.

In cool fashion moments, Iris Apfel was there and walked by. She was wearing an indian blanket sweater and looked fantastic.

I will post more pictures from my trip including my accidental shopping that occurred on my last day there. My mantra needs to be - No more clothes, but when in New York.....

Happy 2011 !!

We made it, another year. I am happy to say that, regardless of the weirdness surrounding us, everyone I have spoken to is optimistic about what 2011 has in store for us all.

This year instead of making New Year's resolutions that would require me to complete an entire life makeover i am simply choosing to improve upon the life I have - Make more stuff, write more, be kinder - to myself and others, Be healthier and live the life I am capable of. The best part of it all is that it only requires recognition of who I am and all of the love surrounding us.

I was going to write a list of do's and don'ts but I decided against it. I am almost too much in the mood to say yes to everything and anything I don't want, I will just shrug it off.

Instead here is a list of links to your horrorscopes.

Enjoy !

http://www.aquariumage.com/

http://mysticmedusa.com/

http://www.cainer.com/

http://www.freewillastrology.com/

http://www.astrologyzone.com/forecasts/

I am a big believer in this stuff. The planets just don't lie.

I am off to New York tomorrow for the trade shows. I will take lots of pictures and share them ASAP.

Where I work

This is me at the sample sale. I have on a major necklace - looking rather lady of the manor, with my hair in a bun.

I hate talking directly about my personal life.
1. because why should anyone care
2. I never know how much to reveal or not reveal
and
3. It's just how I am. I think that I come from that type of woman that was taught that if you talk too much about the good things that go on with you that means you are bragging and everyone will hate you...blah, blah.

However I am coming around to learning how to share parts of myself.

What I do for a living. I work for a jewelry designer. I do the business parts, meaning some of everything. The administrative stuff - everything from data entry, to shipping, to talking to department stores, to accounts receivable, marketing,.... you name it.

I also get to do cool things that are fun like design decisions - picking colors, giving advice on what is current, naming collections - finally named my first one a few months ago.

I also get to go to New York for the trade shows next month. This will be my first trip to New York and my first trade show, which in this business is where the action is. I am hoping to come away with some brand new deparment store accounts out of this. Fingers crossed.

I didn't go to school for this. I have a life long love of fashion, and pretty things but this job was a happy accident. They were looking for an admin person and it was the first job I saw. I applied and almost two years later I am still there. Everything is completely produced in San Francisco which is pretty amazing considering that most manufacturing is done overseas. We also make everything with pretty Swarovski crystal. Sometimes it's like being in a pretty jewel box. Other times it's like a factory, cold gray, with some sparkle thrown in.

What I do

This is where I have been volunteering my Saturday afternoons for about one year now. Rock Paper Scissors Collective.



It's a great community space where anyone can come and participate in the artistic process. There are sewing labs, craft classes, a gallery, retail store and zine library.



This month's show is by Patchwerk Press.
We work in collaboration with Patchwerk on Screenprint classes. They are also collectively run which I totally respect.


These dresses were handmade by a collective member from recycled materials.

as was the window display. Awesome Patchwork dress.

We also have a retail store. The sequin headband was made by moi.

This picture to the right is of a lovely English girl that stopped by on our Friday opening.

LOVE her hat. She was entirely adorable.

Hi Elena!

I'm a winner

I finally won something, a Maybelline makeup bag with makeup via Refinery 29. To be fair, this was an easy win. You had to say who your favorite Sci-Fi character re costuming. The top 50 - Yes, 50!- would win the prize. Of course I answered, the entire cast of Dune. That was an easy one. I counted the answers, only 54 people entered.

So this shows up today and besides the standard fare i have now discovered a lip-stain pen. Why did i not know about this before ? lipstick, combined with a pen ??? fantastic.